Shortly before boarding Jam Cruise 10, Adam Deitch and Skerik joined John Medeski for an improvisational freak out at New York City’s Le Poisson Rouge. It was a pre-show for NYC’s 2012 Winter Jazz Fest and also featured Jessica Lurie‘s new ensemble (featuring Will Bernard) , Marc Ribot‘s Young Philadelphians, and up and comers, Red Baraat (who have a crazy sound of New Orleans brass band funk mixed with Indian bhangra) .
Some of you may have noticed that our friend jamjoints posted 40+ minutes of video of the Medeski, Deitch, Skerik set on youtube last week. He was gracious enough to supply me with the raw video files so I could upgrade the audio (kindly recorded on stage by Mr. Eric McRoberts). So here it is. 40+ minutes of improv including a cover of John Coltrane‘s A Love Supreme.
BTW, the audio download for the Medeski, Deitch, Skerik set is here.
B. Getz, in his recent Bear Creek Music Festival review on JamBase, described Lettuce as Voltron: “individual vehicles joined together to form a giant super funk robot”. I, however, would give that moniker to Chapter 2.
Early Saturday afternoon at Uncle Charlie’s Porch Stage (arguably the best sounding stage at the festival), Eric Krasno, Adam Deitch, Nigel Hall, and Louis Cato joined forces to provide a wake up call to any Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park campers that might have overslept. WAKE UP! Chapter 2 at 2:25 p.m., The Funky Meters at 3:30, The New Mastersounds at 5, Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood at 6:30, Lettuce at 8, The Trey Anastasio Band at 9:30, and Dumpstaphunk’s Dumpstajam at midnight. There was no time to waste. And that was only 2 of the 7 stages operating that day! Not to mention that the music started at 11:30 a.m. and wouldn’t be stopping until 5 a.m.
I can’t say much about this group that you can’t find out by watching the videos. (Here at Funk It we like to let the content do the talking.) But I will point out that Louis Cato was the definitive all star of the entire festival. As far as I know, he played bass with Chapter 2, drums and percussion with fSnarky Puppy, trombone and bass at the Dumsptajam, drums with Dumpstaphunk the next night, and percussion and bass at the Tree House After Party Jam Session.
Seeing as this was the first full fledged Chapter 2 show with this lineup in over 7 months, they came out energized and at full force.
Here are the videos in raw HD with audio from my external mic:
On the last day of the Bear Creek Music Festival, I was fortunate to get wind of the secret after party jam session that was supposedly for staff only. I was told it would be in the tree house behind the Purple Hat stage. Luckily I was able to borrow a 4 gig memory card from a friend (thanks Bob!) which enabled me to record about an hour of the jam session before I was flat-out out of memory.
When I arrived around 11:30pm, I saw WRD (Robert Walter, Eddie Roberts and Adam Deitch) set up and ready to play. I had previously thought it strange that this new group didn’t get a Bear Creek set, considering all three players were at the festival. So this was quite a treat to close out the weekend with. I didn’t record the first tune, but I did get the next six, approximately 54 minutes, which you can watch in excellent HD quality right here….
For me, the highlights are Topaz‘s saxophone blowing on the first video, Eric Krasno‘s jazz guitar chops on the second video, Louis Cato‘s bass solo at the end of the fifth video, and Ivan Neville jumping on drums to join Jamie McLean for a cover of Delbert McClinton‘s “Standing On Shaky Ground” on the sixth and last video. For those that weren’t able to attend or who didn’t find out about the jam session, sit back and enjoy it here in Funk It vision…
Bear Creek Secret Tree House After Party Jam Session (1 of 6) 11/12/11 Bear Creek Music Festival (Robert Walter on keys, Eddie Roberts on guitar, Adam Deitch on drums, Topaz on sax, Jonathan Lloyd on trombone, Louis Cato on percussion) – Almendra:
Bear Creek Secret Tree House After Party Jam Session (2 of 6) 11/12/11 Bear Creek Music Festival (Robert Walter on keys, Eddie Roberts on guitar, Adam Deitch on drums, Louis Cato on bass, Eric Krasno on guitar, Topaz on sax, Jonathan Lloyd on trombone) – Flood In Franklin Park (Grant Green cover):
Bear Creek Secret Tree House After Party Jam Session (3 of 6) 11/12/11 Bear Creek Music Festival (Robert Walter on keys, Eddie Roberts on guitar, Adam Deitch on drums) – Pack of Lies (The Counts cover):
Bear Creek Secret Tree House After Party Jam Session (4 of 6) 11/12/11 Bear Creek Music Festival (Robert Walter on keys, Eddie Roberts on guitar, Derrick Freeman on drums, Jamie McLean on guitar) – Louisiana Slim (Leon Spencer cover):
Bear Creek Secret Tree House After Party Jam Session (5 of 6) 11/12/11 Bear Creek Music Festival (Robert Walter on keys, Eddie Roberts on guitar, Adam Deitch on drums, Jamie McLean on guitar, Louis Cato on bass, Topaz on sax, Jonathan Lloyd on trombone) – unknown jam:
Bear Creek Secret Tree House After Party Jam Session (6 of 6) 11/12/11 Bear Creek Music Festival (Robert Walter on keys, Eddie Roberts on guitar, Jamie McLean on guitar, Louis Cato on bass, Sean Sullivan on drums and then Ivan Neville takes over on drums) – Standing On Shakey Ground (Delbert McClinton cover):
